Changes are coming to how the government handles emails and digital content. Mandates from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) require agencies to manage email records in an accessible electronic format by the end of this year and manage all permanent records in an electronic format by December 31, 2019. GCN brought this news to our attention in their article, “Records management: Look beyond the NARA mandates.”
These changes include the ability to identify, store, retrieve and retain those records for as long as they are needed so agencies can locate and deliver them in a timely manner.
Believe it or not, many agencies still print and manually file all emails or use email archiving systems that save all emails, regardless of whether their retention is required. In April, NARA released a new directive called Criteria for Managing Email Records in Compliance with the Managing Government Records Directive (M-12-18).
An enterprise approach to managing content must include a solid taxonomy. With this approach, there are many benefits in addition to meeting the mandates. A comprehensive solution can reduce the operational costs associated with managing diverse repositories while also creating opportunities for optimizing business processes and making information easier to share.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
